Exhibit 5: Piet Mondrian, Composition V, 1927

Piet Mondrian. Composition V. 1927. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Bequest of Saidie A. May, BMA 1951.343Piet Mondrian began his career as a landscape painter, but abandoned naturalism after being exposed to Cubism. “Composition V” is an example of the austere style he perfected in the 1920s. Restricting compositional elements to the bare essentials, Mondrian allowed himself to use only vertical and horizontal lines, right angles, and the three primary colors, along with black and white. Together with fellow artists of the De Stijl (The Style) art movement, Mondrian sought to purify art by purging all that was extraneous. The group’s goal was to achieve ideal harmony while suppressing individualism, viewed as the underlying cause of World War I.Saidie May acquired this work in 1946 from French modernist architect and designer Pierre Chareau, who had moved to New York in 1940.

There is only an appearance of too little. Everything fits together simply. Some of the paintings are needlessly complicated. Black, white and primary colors. They fit. They do it all the time but no one has to create disorder. Timing matters.

The idiot had me restored. That means dirty original paint was removed and repainted. Won’t future generations love that. Makes my reds boil but that is individualism.

2 thoughts on “Exhibit 5: Piet Mondrian, Composition V, 1927”

There is only an appearance of too little. Everything fits together simply. Some of the paintings are needlessly complicated. Black, white and primary colors. They fit. They do it all the time but no one has to create disorder. Timing matters.

The idiot had me restored. That means dirty original paint was removed and repainted. Won’t future generations love that. Makes my reds boil but that is individualism.